An economical, reliable second car ?

FreeBear

Herzlos said:

It's going to be much, much cheaper, to just rent a car for the few days a year you need it. 

I did the sums a while back. Once you've taken in to account insurance, road tax, servicing, fuel, and parking charges, I reckoned it would be a lot cheaper to use public transport and hire a car for the few occasions when I needed one.

Parkhall

FreeBear said:

Herzlos said:

It's going to be much, much cheaper, to just rent a car for the few days a year you need it. 

I did the sums a while back. Once you've taken in to account insurance, road tax, servicing, fuel, and parking charges, I reckoned it would be a lot cheaper to use public transport and hire a car for the few occasions when I needed one.

Unfortunately public transport is very inaccessible and infrequent where I live.

Herzlos

Not even including buying the car?

I fully agree though. Assuming you only need a 2nd car for 2 weeks a year, it's hard to justify. 

2 weeks rental from Enterprise for tomorrow would cost me £462 for an Aygo, or £350 if I wanted a small van instead. That's last minute, no shopping around, so I'm sure I could do better. 

Rough figures for owning the car would be:

Insurance: £200

MOT: £45
Servicing: £300

So already we're at £545 and we haven't paid for the car or had anything go wrong or wearing out. 

We're looking at something like £2k now for something that'll pass an MOT. That's almost 2 months rental costs alone. 

Parkhall

Herzlos said:

Not even including buying the car?

I fully agree though. Assuming you only need a 2nd car for 2 weeks a year, it's hard to justify. 

2 weeks rental from Enterprise for tomorrow would cost me £462 for an Aygo, or £350 if I wanted a small van instead. That's last minute, no shopping around, so I'm sure I could do better. 

Rough figures for owning the car would be:

Insurance: £200

MOT: £45
Servicing: £300

So already we're at £545 and we haven't paid for the car or had anything go wrong or wearing out. 

We're looking at something like £2k now for something that'll pass an MOT. That's almost 2 months rental costs alone. 

Thanks again but there are no car rental companies anywhere close to where we live. But I will think about what you suggested.

paul_c123

Where do you live where there's no public transport or hire cars available? It might influence where you could physically buy (and later sell) a car from.....

WellKnownSid

Seems odd there is no rental facility nearby.

When we lived on the West coast our nearest main dealer was 160 miles / over three hours' drive away - but we could still hire cars / vans from two places within 10 miles.

Obviously local companies, not the big chains.

Goudy

Sounds like you want to keep the second car rather than move it on after yours is repaired.

There are plenty to choose from but you haven't given a budget so it's difficult to say but my choices would be a Fiat Panda.

Don't worry about the spec, the more basic the better.

Fiat's 1.2 FIRE engine is a bit of a peach in the Panda, it's cheap to service, fuss free and robust.
Don't bother with the diesel or Twinair, they can be overly fussy to service and repair.

The Panda can suffer with a rusty back axle, but it's easy to check and there is a better aftermarket part available cheaply enough and the sump pan is known to rust a little and can leak, again easy to check.

2012 models onwards are better. A slightly wider track makes them handle and ride better than the older ones.
From March 2014 they fiddled with the engine management system to get the emissions down and they can feel a little sluggish off the line, but you won't notice unless you just got out of a pre March 2014 car.

If it's going to be an occasional car, keep the battery topped up.
Most modern cars are power hungry due to things like electric power steering, so need a healthy battery.

Arunmor

FreeBear said:

use public transport 

That would be a giggle round our way.

But as has been suggested if it's only to cover short garage spells just hire one or find a garage that will offer a courtesy car.  Buying a car to sit idle 95% of the time is just madness, cars need to be used regularly.

Parkhall

paul_c123 said:

Where do you live where there's no public transport or hire cars available? It might influence where you could physically buy (and later sell) a car from.....

I live out in the country and there is very little public transport. The nearest bus stop is a long walk away and there are only a few buses per day. The nearest car hire is more than 20 miles away. It really is the kind of place where you just have to have a car.

Herzlos

Whats the taxi situation like? It's obviously a lot more expensive than a bus but I'm sure the maths is still in favour of that over owning another car.